The development comes as\u00a0Microsoft stock<\/a> heads for a weekly decline, with the stock down 0.7% so far this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n OpenAI Launches Astra AI Model<\/p>\n OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra on Thursday, describing it as its most capable model for complex, end-to-end work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Astra is designed to go beyond conventional chatbot interactions by reasoning through multi-step problems, creating plans, using tools, and executing tasks across software applications.\u00a0<\/p>\n A key capability is computer use, which lets Astra interpret information on a screen and interact with applications on a user\u2019s behalf. It can work across browsers and professional software, while also creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations based on templates and instructions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The initial rollout remains limited, with OpenAI also making Astra available first to a restricted group of organizations before expanding access through its API and paid ChatGPT plans.<\/p>\n Microsoft CEO Sells Stock<\/p>\n Nadella sold over $43 million worth of company stock under a pre-arranged trading plan, marking his first sale of the year. The trades were made on Sept. 1 at a per-share price between $497.69 and $505.76.<\/p>\n Executives routinely sell stock under 10b5-1 plans, and Nadella had adopted his current plan in March.<\/p>\n Microsoft shares have moved largely sideways in recent weeks and has underperformed the broader market this year. The stock is up 6.5% year to date, compared with a 13% gain in the benchmark S&P 500.<\/p>\n Microsoft Reveals Azure Financials<\/p>\n In the context of AI, Microsoft made a\u00a0big change<\/a> to its financial reporting structure earlier this week.<\/p>\n The Windows maker said it will begin reporting quarterly sales figures for its Azure cloud unit and also provided figures covering the last eight quarters.<\/p>\n Total annual sales for Azure topped $100 billion during the most recent fiscal year, up from $75 billion the previous year. Azure clocked $29.4 billion in the most recent quarter that ended on June 30.<\/p>\n Retail View On MSFT<\/p>\n On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for MSFT was \u2018bearish\u2019 as of early Friday, unchanged over the past week.<\/p>\n \u201cMicrosoft’s AI strategy isn’t “pick a winner.” It’s three roads that all lead to the same place,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a> a trader in a long post explaining their Microsoft AI thesis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt invests in OpenAI and Anthropic \u2014 equity upside, plus Azure demand when they scale. It rents out Azure \u2014 compute fees no matter who’s building.\u00a0 It builds its own MAI models \u2014 lower model costs, in-house optionality. All three sit on top of something Microsoft already had before the AI boom: a customer base already running Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, GitHub. Copilot just plugs AI into that.\u201d<\/p>\n MSFT stock was down 0.2% in overnight trading ahead of Friday.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<\/p>\n Read Next:\u00a0ORCL Stock Spikes On New HPE Equipment Deal: Retail Turns Bullish Ahead Of Q1 Report<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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